A new study has revealed that the lasting effects of biochar depend strongly on the material it is made from, with straw-derived biochar offering clear advantages for maize productivity under limited-water conditions. The research, published in Biochar, shows that combining wheat-straw biochar with an alternate partial root-zone drying irrigation system can boost crop yield and resource efficiency for at least two growing seasons after a single biochar application.

A team of U.S. scientists has discovered the oldest directly dated ice and air on the planet in the Allan Hills region of East Antarctica.

Scientists from the Yale School of the Environment discovered that forests in the Everglades bounce back quickly after fires, often surpassing their previous levels of productivity. The research reaffirms the need to continue prescribed burns in the face of a changing climate. 

Scientists from the Canadian Museum of Nature have announced the discovery and description of an extinct rhinoceros from the Canadian High Arctic. The nearly complete fossil skeleton of the new species was recovered from the fossil-rich lake deposits in Haughton Crater on Devon Island, Nunavut and is the most northerly rhino species known. Rhinoceroses have an evolutionary history that spanned over 40 million years, encompassing all continents except South America and Antarctica. The “Arctic rhino” lived about 23 million years ago, during the Early Miocene and is most closely related to other rhino species that thrived in Europe millions of years earlier. The paper also describes that the new Arctic species migrated to North America across a land bridge that may have been a passage for terrestrial-mammal dispersal millions of years later than previous evidence suggests.

UMD astronomer Megan Weiner Mansfield co-led the creation of the first-ever 3D temperature map of WASP-18b, a gas giant located 400 light-years from Earth. The new technique lays the groundwork for more detailed future explorations of faraway planets.

The EU-funded SpongeBoost project invites both organisations and private individuals, aimed at restoring sponge landscapes across Europe, to apply for the "SpongeBooster of the Year 2026" award. The winning project will receive recognition and visibility for its work during a field trip to its research area.